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Some men just want to watch the world burn

By ALEXANDER BURNS

03/13/2012 05:06 AM EDT

Former RNC Chairman Michael Steele, speaking to Mother Jones, defends (sort of) the rules he shepherded in that allocate most GOP presidential delegates proportionally and practically guarantee a long primary:

These reforms are now bedeviling front-runner Mitt Romney and the Republican establishment by preventing Romney from wrapping up the nomination and keeping him mired in a nasty fight for the support of the party's hardcore base voters, an ugly and grinding tussle that is defining Romney (and the party) in a manner that's not bolstering his fall prospects (or the GOP's). Moreover, the rules Steele bequeathed the party could yield an outcome in which Romney finishes with the most delegates, but not an outright majority, necessitating a brokered convention.

"I wanted a brokered convention," Steele tells me. "That was one of my goals." Why in the world would a party chairman desire apparent turmoil? To create excitement and shake up the party, Steele explains. So far this year, he has indeed succeeded in one regard: The Republican race remains unsettled. And that's unsettling many within the party's upper ranks.

In some ways, blaming Steele and the RNC for Romney's problems is a facile response to a more complicated problem. It wouldn't matter that delegates are handed out proportionally if Romney were a strong enough primary candidate to win South Carolina or crush Rick Santorum in Ohio. And even with his shortcomings as a candidate, Romney may be able to wrap up the nomination for all practical purposes by the end of the month. What's more, if Romney were competing against a single, more Hillary Clinton-like opponent, Republicans might be talking about the genius of the rules in allowing the party to work through a constructive internal rivalry. The reasons why the rules seem to problematic are largely circumstantial.

But under the circumstances, they do seem pretty problematic, and for Steele to be out in public rooting for a brokered convention is going to rankle a bit more.